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play doh octopus playset with child friendly scissors and loads of shapes to make

I bought my son this play doh octopus set as part of his christmas as he loves playing with play doh and making all sorts of shapes and animals with it. I bought it in toys r us for £14.99 and it seems to be the same price in a lot of shops which I have seen it in.

The octopus is a blue/purple colour and the base which it is attatched to is yellow and features various shapes for your child to make such as a crab and seahorse. On the top of the ocotpus is a hat which when removed the play doh can be inserted into and pushed down using the hat itself as it has a long section down the middle of it. Once pushed down the play doh comes out throught the bottom through one of the various attatchments which can be put on such as a turtle and small octopus. These attatchments can be quite difficult for young children to get on and off so I normally need to help my son to do this. Also when they have finished making shapes it is a bit annoying trying to get all the play doh out of the inside part as althought the hat pushes most of it down and out there always seems to be small bits which get stuck right in the corners.

Six of the octopus' legs also serve a purpose and the other two go up and down like a see saw and can be used to play a game of tossing the fish which you have just made but my son never does this. One of the legs makes a smiling starfish which is my son favourite and another is used to help flatten out the play doh or even make a circle shape. Other accessories which come with this playset are a pair of child friendly scissors which are shaped like a lobster and a clam shell which can be used to make a fish shape simply by placing a small bit of play doh inside it and closing it over tightly, then opening it up and hey presto you've made a fish!

A great play doh toy which is a good price and features loads of accessories and shapes to play with to keep children entertained for hours on end. Definitely recommend it!

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Fun toy but has it's faults

My 3 year old has had this for a while now; it was purchased with some of her 'money box' money because she wanted a Play-Doh toy, rather than just lots of Play-Doh. So off to we went to Toys R Us, and this is what she chose from quite a wide range of Play-Doh toys.

I think we paid £14.99 for it, and you can get it from Toys R Us for this price, and also Argos, but I have seen it on Amazon for £29, so do not pay this expensive price!!

What you get in the set is a blue octopus where you put Play-Doh inside and push down his hat to squeeze the Play-Doh out of the bottom, through one of the various attachments (including a tortoise, sea anemone, octopus, and a weird fish head thing).

You also get lots of removable tentacles which all have a little tool on the end - a knife, a couple of patterned rollers, a flat stamper, a starfish printer and one with holes in which you can push the Play-Doh through, (8 in fact but you can only actually remove 6 - the other two are used as a sort of catapult type thing where you can propel bits of Play-Doh into the central part of the octopus).

You also get a cute little clam shell which has a fish print inside, so you can put Play-Doh in, squeeze it together, and when you open it up again you have a very well made fish (this is my favourite part of the whole set...).

On the actual octopus itself are various sea creature type moulds into which you can push bits of Play-Doh and then remove them again to reveal a turtle, mini octopus, seahorse, crab...etc

Plastic lobster scissors and 4 medium sized pots of brightly coloured Play-Doh are also provided with this toy (pink, blue, green and yellow).

I think this toy is a great little set, and I would be lying if I said my children have not had lots of fun with it, but I have found it to have its faults, and to be a difficult thing for them to play with alone and my daughters have to be supervised and assisted throughout the entire time they are playing with the toy. The age range is from 3 upwards, and my eldest is 3 so I would have thought she could have played alone, but it's too difficult for her and she needs my help (I wouldn't expect my youngest to play alone, she is 15 months, and just eats Play-Doh and squishes it through her hands).

I am going to try and split this review up into what I think are the good points and bad points of this toy.

***GOOD POINTS***

I have no complaints in the build quality of the toy, it is all very well made and there are no parts that can be easily broken, and no sharp edges. It's all made with bright colours and is very appealing for a child.

There are a wide variety of activities to be done using this toy, such as squashing, squeezing, making various sea creatures using the moulds around the octopus, and making patterns using the tentacle tools.

My children have had a lot of fun with it (always in my company, but still fun). They love to make the little fish in the clam shell, and they love to make the sea creatures that can be found around the Octopus. My youngest daughter seems to enjoy using the tentacle tools the most, if I roll out a flat piece of Play-Doh she will then use the tools to make little imprints into it, and then dig her fingers in...

The main part of the toy (the octopus) is very much a fun thing, but this is the part which really requires an adult to help. First of all you select one of the attachments (anemone is my daughter's favourite), and you slot it into the designated slot at the bottom of the Octopus, then you pile Play-Doh into the octopus's head, and then push his hat down to squeeze the Play-Doh through the anemone and a miracle happens and his hair grows! Both my kids love to watch this happen and then my eldest likes to snip off his hair and use it as spaghetti. You get a similar effect with the mini octopus and the tortoise. Although the enjoyment of this part of the toy is high, it also has a lot of bad points, which I will describe later.

The lobster scissors are great because obviously they are plastic so no fingers are going to be lost during their use, and my daughter has never used scissors before so this is a great tool for her to learn to use them without hurting herself. The scissors are provided in the set to cut the anemone's 'hair'

You get 4 tubs of Play-Doh with it, and this is enough to have a good play with the toy without feeling the need to buy extra tubs.

It's quite easy to remove all the Play-Doh from the toy once play is finished. I find the sooner the better, otherwise if you leave it to dry then getting it out of all the nooks and crannies would be quite a task.

All in all it's a fun toy and my kids do love playing with it, but like I said, there are a lot of bad points, which are coming up...

***BAD POINTS***

It's the main part of the toy (i.e. the Octopus) which I have many issues with.

First of all, the Octopus is very difficult for a child of 3 to use alone. It's quite fiddly to put the Play-Doh in his head and push his hat down. I have found that you have to put Play-Doh in and push it down 2 or 3 times before you get a good growth on the anemone (or whatever attachment you are using), and this is quite frustrating for a young child.

You also have to push down really hard, which is impossible for my daughter to do, she cannot make it budge at all, which is also really frustrating for her. And on the occasions that I have found her trying to do this on her own, the Octopus usually goes flying off the table because it is quite lightweight and the underside has no grip, so some misplaced pressure can send it sideways.

The attachments that come with the toy are small, and to fit them into the slot is quite difficult. Obviously with the pressure you get from pushing the Play-Doh through, these have to be securely clicked into position before any pushing can begin, and even I have been known to not slot it in correctly and the thing comes shooting out as soon as any Play-Doh gets pushed through. So this is another aspect that my daughter cannot achieve and finds frustrating that she has to get me to help.

The box would have you believe you can create come wonderful little sea creatures using this part of the toy, but the truth is, you cannot! The reason being that once you have pushed the Play-Doh through to create legs, hair, tentacles or whatever, to remove the attachment with these bits of Play-Doh hanging out is nigh on impossible!

Removing the attachment is a feat in itself because you have to push down a small piece of plastic to release the attachment, and then with some force, pull the attachment out, but once this is covered in Play-Doh legs or hair, it is quite difficult to get a good grip on it without destroying everything you have just created. A child would never in a million years be able to remove the attachment, never mind remove it without destroying the Play-Doh!

The final bad point is that it doesn't fit back into the box it came in once it is assembled, so you either have to have it out all the time and risk losing the small parts, or you have to buy a decent sized box to store it all in (I have done the latter so my kids don't always remember it's there!)

***CONCLUSION***

I have decided to give this toy an average rating (3 stars) because despite its bad points, my children do enjoy using it, and we do play with it every few weeks and it usually gives them about an hour of fun, which in my opinion is quite a long time for two very young children! I cannot rate it any higher than this because there are too many problems with it, and I do think the manufacturers are very misleading with the pictures they provide on the box.

I wish I had not let her chose it, and gone with my gut instinct and bought the food orientated set.

£14.99 from Toys R Us or Argos.

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low cost, imaginative fun!

I bought this set for my daughter for this Christmas only it has'nt actually got to the wrapping stage as when I got it home I could'nt wait to get it out and plunge my hands into the soft doughy substance!

The set comes complete with four pots of brightly coloured play-doh in blue, green, pink and yellow. In my opinion it can be played with without all the accessories as you can model the doh into anything you like, although after a few play sessions the colours tend to get blended together slightly so everything looks rainbow coloured.

The octopus has tentacles with various tools at the end of them which can flatten, cut and imprint the doh. You can use them attatched to the octopus or take them off and use them by hand. There are two fixed tentacles which act like a see-saw so you can flip your crustacious creatures into the air (Not shown her how to do that though as I don't fancy peeling it off the walls!)

Also included are lobster scissors and a mould to make perfectly formed if not a little podgy fish! And what can only be described as a sort of snake/worms head!

Around the octopus are various moulds built in so you can squish the doh in and they come out looking like creatures from the deep such as sea horses, star fish, sea enenemies, snails and crabs.

The octopus has a removeable hat with a plunger on it so you can take the hat off, push the play-doh into the octopus and plunge it right down with the hat and it comes out at the bottom where you can attatch moulds of strange looking puffer fish which grows hair and legs! You do need to put a good handful of doh in though for this to work well.

The age guide is 3yrs+ but my daughter is just under 2 and loves it. I can understand that younger children may want to try and eat the play-doh but under supervision I think its an excellent play activity for all ages. Its great for their imagination and interactive play and what do kids like doing more than sticking their fingers into stuff! ( I think secretly the adults love it too, I know I do!)

There are a few minor downsides to this product but nothing that would deter me from buying anything else in the play-doh range:

One is that the octopus does tend to move around a bit as its quite light and does'nt give good contact with the table surface, so when my daughter is squishing the doh into the various mouldings I have to hold the octopus to stop it moving around. Maybe a couple of suction pads on the bottom would help with this.

Secondly the doh does tend to dry out a bit after a few play sessions but a drop of water in each tub soon sorts that out. Although I have found slightly too much water and the doh can become quite sticky until its been played with again.

Lastly its quite time consuming trying to get the doh out of all the nooks and crannys but I've found a toothpick comes in handy in those fiddly places! I've also since learnt that my friend puts hers in the dishwasher but I would'nt recommend that as I've not tried it!

All in all a good product with plenty of hours of play for children (and adults) that does'nt cost a fortune.

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keeps my son entertained on a wet afternoon.

My son received the Play-Doh Octopus for Christmas last year and its only recently during the long summer holidays that he's got round to using it.

What is the product?The Play-Doh Octopus is one of a range of Play-Doh sets featuring different themes to encourage creativity. The box states that "This play set is great fun for boys and girls alike".The set retails for around £15.00 and contains 4 coloured tubs of Play-Doh, a large plastic octopus and assorted plastic modelling tools, stamps and scissors all with a sea creature theme. The product is suitable for age 3 and over."A 'fishnet' bag for storage answers mums' concern of where to put it all when the kids have done playing." This I never received, but maybe I have an older version.

My experience of the product.The Play-Doh itself is nice and soft and squishy and easy to model with. I usually find that when my son has used Play-Doh in the past it is a good idea to wrap a damp tissue around each coloured ball of dough before storing it in the tubs - this helps it to stay more pliable for subsequent use.The octopuses' tentacles are removable and form the handle with modelling tools on the end. There is a fine detail tool which is particularly useful for shaping detail on models, a roller that prints a circular pattern on the doh, a circular and starfish press a wheel cutter and one for making what can only be described as worms! There is also doh scissors shaped like a lobster a clam for pressing out fish shapes, and a head for adding to a doh snake.There are also three little "creatures" that slot into the main octopus and you are meant to fill him with Play-Doh and press down on his hat so the doh is squeezed out through the holes making the creature's legs or hair. This feature is popular with my son but you really do have to push down very hard and so I find I need to help with this. The doh also gets stuck in the octopus and must be removed with a knife which can be annoying if you want to get on with other jobs and let your kids play.One thing that is very good is the amount of tools you get; my son can play this with his friend without too many fights over who's hogging what tools! I would also say that its good for a fairly wide age group as kids will make models as sophisticated as is appropriate for them.The "flipping" feature of the octopus is a bit naff. It apparently "incorporates a fun flipping game that kids will love". Your meant to make a creature put it on one side of the octopus and flip it by pressing down on the other (like a see saw). Personally I'm not overly keen on Play-Doh being fired all over my kitchen!My son has certainly spent some time this holiday enjoying playing with this but I do wonder if a few cheap modelling tools and tubs of Play-Doh would not be almost as fun and a lot cheaper.

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A good fun product, has everything in to save buying duplicate sets

This is a funky little octopus which gives children hours of fun.

My 3 year old uses this all the time. Each of the octopuses legs has a different playdough accessory which can be used for cutting, stamping patterns, bashing etc. in addition, there is also a section on the front which you can attach different creatues and when the playdough is pushed down under the hat, they sprout legs/hair/tongues.

Parental assistance is needed for young children as they can find it difficult to push the playdough down into the hollow area under the hat and also to apply enough pressure to push it through to create the creatures. Our favourite part of the kit is the fish creator. you can push playdough into a fish mould (which is shaped like a shell) and create 3d fish, once create these can be tossed over the octopuses head (although he never ctaches them like the adverts)

The downside to this product is that once it is assembled and you have got rid of the box, it can be quite difficult to store. ours is in a basket in a cupboard but inevitably pieces keep falling out of it and if not careful they can get lost.

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Squish and play with your wonderful Octopus friend! With loads of tools and added features, you can really let your imagination go wild in this silly underwater world! Make brightly coloured fish in the crazy cloning clam , before watching them fly with Octopus' wacky flipping arms! Squeeze arms and legs out of the cute mini octopus or make a sea snake , then give them a hair cut with the cutting crab! Stamp a starfish or create a turtle! This playset is great fun for boys and girls alike, and packs away tidily into the 'fishnet' bag!